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Chapter 457: False Tome

[TN: Beginning of next Volume: Book of Divine Transporter]

February 1st was the Holy Day of Mysterious Lady. Therefore, it was also when Her ritual was at its strongest.

The followers of Mysterious Lady, who were accustomed to holding various rituals on this day, would head out and buy books. This did not include the ritualist.

February 1st to 7th was called the Reading Festival. During these seven days, booksellers would sell as many books as possible, and the price was often only 70%, half or even lesser than their usual price. The requirement was that the buyer had to finish the books.

On February 8th, Mysterious Lady would give a certain amount of holy light engravings as a festival reward based on the spread of knowledge in these seven days. It worked regardless of whether the person was Her priest.

It was not limited to the booksellers. Teachers, mentors, and instructors would be rewarded as long as they passed down new knowledge to others. Some strenuous occult knowledge could only be acquired in a relatively simple way during that week.

These holy light engravings could be used to buy all kinds of occult knowledge and rituals no matter if it was for prolonging life, curing disease, or strengthening physical fitness. There were all possible gains.

You could buy various Inscriptions after accumulating a certain amount of holy light engravings too.

“I never thought that Noah’s Kingdom would also hold a book festival,” Annan said casually while holding the book he had just bought in his hand.

With the Spiritual Monk Saga resolved last week, Annan still needed time to recover from his injury.

Due to the side effects of Salvatore’s reagent, his body was weaker than ever.

Annan did not intend to help Kafni with Silver Sire on her side. Instead, he planned to leave for a while. After all, the king selection only started in May.

Annan’s current plan was to leave after his attributes were restored to their original value.

Unexpectedly, he just happened to catch up on the reading festival, thus encouraging the players to buy more books.

Books in this era were already relatively cheap. The prices of newspapers were a clear example.

Initially, the elves had a more complex papermaking technology. Then, Father Flint optimized this technology. In this world today, paper was not expensive. Portable type printing technology was already developed more than two hundred years ago.

This had significantly reduced the price of books, and even civilians could buy some books after saving money. This also greatly promoted the development of art — poetry and novels. It was only after the printing technology took shape that it began to develop formally.

It was just that some expensive books… For example, books that record “cumbersome knowledge” could only be spread by handwriting. There were only two ways to document knowledge carrying a substantial weight properly.

One was to know the “full picture” of this knowledge wholly. Only when the understanding was correct could it be recorded smoothly; the other method would be having a transcender who was at Gold Rank and had a “dyed” soul create a record of the transcendent knowledge. However, the latter option often led to errors or deviations in the description due to personal interpretation or malice.

For example, the Venerated Skeleton’s ritual.

Occult knowledge itself was “restricted”. It was a secret kept in the Light Realm.

Even after getting to know a fragment, the person could only replicate it if he possessed the strength to separate the knowledge. In other words, it was like “copying the shortcut file to the disk instead of the program itself”.

In essence, the mechanism was designed to “keep the secret”.

It was just that the person keeping the secret was not a living person but a particular book.

When the secret keeper still survived… In other words, when the body corresponding to the shortcut still existed, even if the user only knew a few words of the knowledge, he could summon this part of the power from the Light Realm through “automatic association”.

However, since the user only knew a fragment of the knowledge and could not record it, it was depleted after being used.

However, in addition to these two methods, there was a way of forcibly writing down the transcended knowledge.

That was to add his understanding, replace the original reference with some metaphor, and disrupt the order of the original sentence. Then, the person would write a “mystic book”.

That book was the so-called “false tome”.

The value of a false tome depended entirely on the author’s reputation. There was indeed a conscientious author who created a false tome and then created the corresponding “key”.

But some influential storytellers crafted nonsense and translated two hundred thousand words in two sentences.

Most of the occult knowledge that could be purchased came from the false tome or “remnant tome”.

Annan suspected that Sire Sire might be involved when he found the book that previously recorded Mr. Ray’s real name. During the Reading Festival, Annan and the Paper Princess searched several bookstores and could not find any originals.

On the contrary, Annan bought a lot of valuable false tomes and remnant tomes.

“Iffac’s translation of the [Song of the Iris] is not bad.”

Annan held the book and was amazed, “There is actually a package of “Iffac’s Key” for sale.”

“Iffac is a well-known occultist who lives up to his fame.” The Paper Princess threw her remarks casually, “Mysterious Lady is optimistic about him. She may turn him into Her monster when he dies.”

“So, even you know his name?” Annan looked at the Paper Princess in surprise.

It meant something to have a deity remembering his name. He was not even a painter in Her corresponding field but an occultist—what a rare sight.

“Part of the reason for that is because Marquis Iris is not a taboo in Noah.”

The Paper Princess glanced at Annan and said, “He also wrote a translation of “The Analect of Paleness”, but no bookstore dares to sell it.”

“Is it about the Pale Princess?”

“Yes. Deities too close to Silver Sire or contradict Silver Sire will not have their tome sold locally. But if you are in the south, you can buy Silver Sire books. This is also an unspoken rule.”

The Paper Princess glanced at Annan’s bag and said with a vague dissatisfaction, “Didn’t you still buy that book?”

Annan coughed lightly and said nothing.

[Dragon, Snow, and Magic Painting]

It was a false tome.

It told the story before the birth of the Paper Princess in a fairy tale tone. Ordinary people would only think it was a fairy tale with a tragic ending. Only those who knew the Paper Princess understood what the metaphor was.

However, the book that carried actual value for Annan was the false tome called the [Last Elegy of the Grand Duke].

It seemed to be a personal biography, but it hid many secrets.

There were so many secrets in the “Last Elegy of the Grand Duke,” which was also the Venerated Skeleton’s secrets.

“So, you’re concerned about the Venerated Skeleton?”

“His current state is so bizarre. I tend to investigate all who might be my enemies.” Annan nodded and spoke rationally, “To be on the safe side, I must study the Venerated Skeleton and the Rotten Man.”

“Is that so?” Hearing Annan’s words, the Paper Princess nodded thoughtfully.

She said slowly, “There’s something I didn’t know if I should tell you. But I must tell you, since you’re used to the current pace.”

“What’s wrong?”

“Nicholas escaped.”

The Paper Princess replied calmly, “It was Father Stone who let him go on purpose.”